Westward Bound: The Next Few Days

I write, seated on the floor of a Holiday Inn Express in Limon, Colorado, McCafe Frappe by my side, having just chowed down on a plate full of cinnamon-roll pancakes at Denny's... But more on that later.

First, we'll dial back to Wednesday.  After grabbing breakfast at Baked in Telluride again (two comments: First, it is tremendously great fun to be a "regular".  Even if it only means two days in a row.  Second, Telluride is a really, really small town.  Not only are restaurant options reasonably limited, making the whole "regular" thing not only possible but downright probable, you're highly likely to run into the same people over and over, all throughout your stay.  All of this in the best possible way, of course), we spent the day touring.  In a nutshell, we circled around, past Ralph Lauren's ranch, over to Ouray and back.  Let's just call the next few pictures a monument to my frustration at my camera's inability to capture the incredible beauty of what I saw.

 This is Ralph Lauren's ranch.  Upon viewing it, I decided that making lots of money was maybe a really good idea, as it would allow a person to buy a ranch like this one...

This is a bird's-eye view of the town of Ouray (pronounced You-Ray), captured from the lookout known as "Switzerland of America".  My paternal relative, who has been to the real Switzerland, informed me (rather tongue-in-cheek) that this was a bit of a stretch.  It was still pretty picturesque.

I could not get tired of the fresh green of the aspen trees.  I wanted to capture the mountain behind them...

We happened upon this old, abandoned mine.  Utterly fascinating to walk around the ruins and peer into the gated, locked mine entrance and imagine when this little ghost town was humming with activity.

Straight up, this picture does not even come close to capturing the beauty of this scene.  We went out on a hike across the snow, looking for an abandoned ruby mine said to be located here.  We didn't find the mine, but by golly, was it beautiful, out there on the snow.  

This is Ouray's main drag.  I've decided that it makes the most sense to build my fantasy vacation home here instead of in Telluride.  Property is cheaper, the town is still pretty adorable (as demonstrated here), the surrounding scenery is spectacular, and it's centrally located between Telluride and Durango.  Win!

Sigh.

Pretty spectacular, no?  We rounded out the day with another drive into the hills surrounding Telluride in search of elk.  Found another 150 or so (this after spotting 300 last night).  

Thursday was a chill day.  We grabbed breakfast at Maggie's.  (We gave up our "regular" status at Baked in Telluride.)  Fun place - we gathered on a couple of sofas perched underneath a sunshiny window to eat our eggs, toast, oatmeal and the like.

Oh, and milk bottles.

We spent the day in town... some of us explored the Telluride Historical Museum (a small affair, which meant we were able to chat up the guy who designed and built the exhibits, and which meant Dad was able to actually handle a 30-caliber M-1 rifle, circa WWII.  For those who are unfamiliar with WWII history, this is a Very. Big. Deal.)  We grabbed lunch at the Butcher and the Baker, and then spent the afternoon following our own individual pursuits - Zay took the kids on a hike, my folks headed back to the lodge for an afternoon of catching up, and I browsed the shops.  We rode the gondola down for dinner at the Sheridan Hotel (for the record, elk short loin is very tasty), and then called it a night.

I LOVED the vibe at the Butcher and the Baker.  Here, my lunch plate: curried cauliflower, udon noodles and watermelon, mint and feta salad.  All local and sustainably sourced, eaten at tables equipped with random silverware and bright cloth napkins, under original art, in a bustling, wonderfully chaotic atmosphere.  Long story short, Carrie was very, very happy.

Not a great shot, as it was taken through the window of the gondola, but this gives a person a bit of an idea as to how Telluride "works".  In essence, it's a little town situated in a box canyon, surrounded by mountains.

My dinner buddy.  She ate her macaroni and cheese, so she got M&M's.  

I'm running out of time, it's late and I have to get up at the unholy hour of 5:00 AM tomorrow morning (we have a LOT of ground to cover if we're going to make it to Vicksburg, MS tomorrow night), so I'll continue with the next leg of our journey shortly.